Wet
GENRE
HORROR
Core Theme
DANGER OF DRUG ABUSE
TIME PERIOD
Contemporary
COMPARABLE TITLES
REEFER MADNESS, GO ASK ALICE
CHARACTER LIST
EMMA BRADSHAW - 29. A HEROIN ADDICT WITH MENTAL ILLNESS WHO TURNS VIOLENT.
JARED BRADSHAW - 24. A DOCUMENTARY FILM-MAKER WHO REFUSES TO ACCEPT THAT HE MAY LOSE HIS SISTER.
THE WARDEN - 55. SUPERVISOR OF A SAFE INJECTION SITE WHERE EMMA RESIDES.
ZAN. A DRUG ADDICT WHO INTRODUCES EMMA TO WET.
MELVIN. A SECURITY GUARD AT THE SAFE INJECTION FACILITY.
SHOMARI. A FRIEND WHO HELPS JARED WITH THE DOCUMENTARY HE'S FILMING ABOUT EMMA.
Logline
After moving into. a supervised injection site, an addict is introduced to a new drug that allows her to see demons and communicate with her missing son.
Genre
Horror
Target Audiences
Age: 18-34,35-54
Target Gender: Universal
Setting
California
Based on a True Story
No
Starting Description
California has opened a facility where drug addicts can use iilicit drugs. After years of failed intervention, Emma Bradshaw, checks into the site is her last hope of staying alive. She uses only heroin, until she is introduced to a more potent high, a marijuana cigarette laced with pcp.
Ending Description
The voices in Emma’s head become louder. They convince her that she’s ruined many lives and the people she’s hurt will eventually suffer the same fate as her—alive but dead on the inside. She agrees to kill those she’s hurt before she kills herself.
Pitch Adaptation
Wet is a low-budget film with minimal locations, primarily indoor, low gore, with lots of scare and tension, that's guaranteed to recourperate it's small budget on opening day weekend. Unlike most horror movies this screenplay does something that others don't. It has character development that leads to an emotional gut-punch that elevates it beyond the horror genre and is rooted in reality with the current opiod edpidemic which will scare audiences enough. Intrestingly this screenplay doesn't overly rely on jump scares. This story favors isolation and heavy atmosphere over a loud CGI monster that goes boo in the night. It repeatedly builds the suspense until it becomes unbearable, has viewers continuously scanning the entire frame searching for anyone suspicious lurking in the background. With nowhere left to turn, our main character must face her emotional and literal demons in this psychological horror. It's heavily inspired by true events of people who've abused pcp and other illicit drugs that this movie will serve as a constant deterrence for people curious to try things they shouldn't. What Jaws did for the summer beaches, Wet intends to do with dangerous drugs.
WGA Number
The author has not yet written this
Mature Audience Themes
Substance Abuse
Plot - Other Elements
Other
Plot - Premise
Tragedy,Overcoming Monster/Villain,Internal Journey/Rebirth
Main Character Details
Name: Emma Bradshaw
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Role: Protagonist
Key Traits: Secretive,Manipulative,Complex,Desperate
Additional Character Details
Name: Jared Bradshaw
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Role: Skeptic
Key Traits: Modest,Visionary,Underdog
Additional Character Details
Name: Warden
Age: 55
Gender: Male
Role: logical
Key Traits: Educated,Sophisticated,Leader,Confident
Additional Character Details
The author has not yet written this
Supplemental Materials
Information not completed
Genre
SUSPENSE, MATURE AUDIENCE
Brief
Jared Bradshaw goes to visit his sister Emma at a safe injection site where he witnesses her decline into madness when she begins a new drug combination called 'Wet'. The drug exacerbates her mental illness with voices and visions of her son until she goes on a killing spree before committing suicide.
Overall Rating
FAIR
Narrative Elements
Authors Writing Style: GOOD
Characterization: GOOD
Commerciality: FAIR
Franchise Potential: FAIR
Pace: GOOD
Premise: FAIR
Structure: GOOD
Theme: FAIR
Accuracy of Book Profile
Yes, it is accurate.
Draw of Story
The potential to deal with the issue of addiction.
Possible Drawbacks
There are points when the plot relies on people doing things that strain believability. Jared being able to find and bring Emma's son to the addiction center being the most obvious example. There are horror movies with stupid decisions but this is egregious even by those standards.
Use of Special Effects
THE STORY RELIES A LITTLE BIT ON SPECIAL EFFECTS
Primary Hook of Story
The tone of the story isn't clear until Emma has her first drug trip well into the movie, the movie throws out two potential protagonists in Keisha and Jared before settling in on Emma.
Fanbase Potential
No. The public has long since soured on movies with scare tactics about drugs. The horror audience that wants to see a person's face get eaten is not an audience that wants a lecture on drug use.
Awards Potential
No. Horror movies rarely ever have awards potential and a movie that uses drug addiction as fodder for a slasher film is a definitely a non-starter.
Envisioned Budget
LOW BUDGET
Similar Films/TV Series
REEFER MADNESS, GO ASK ALICE.
What’s New About the Story
There's a lot of horror movie tropes in this story, if there is a unique element it is in the relationship between Jared and Emma. Most characters in a horror film don't have anyone trying to save them.
Lead Characters
Emma stands out for her combativeness and descent into crazed bloodlust.
Uniqueness of Story
No. This is a movie that seems to be based more on sensational news headlines and old movies with drug crazed characters than a real appreciation for the struggles associated with drug addiction.
Possible Formats
Film
Analyst Recommendation
WORK IN PROGRESS
Justification
There's a clear lack of familiarity with actual drug addiction and treatment. The safe injection site being portrayed as a pseudo mental hospital is an obvious example. The plot is also rife with public officials taking actions they would never do in real life. This film tries to combine serious dramatic issues with low budget horror and it results in either a drama with cheesy elements or a horror movie that uses a serious issue lightly. This script would be better served by committing to either a serious drama or campy horror and playing to the strengths of that genre.
Tips for Improvement
This movie attempts to show the struggle of a person struggling with mental illness and drug addiction but this is undermined by obedience to horror cliches. Turning Emma into a movie monster feels out of step, unnatural and in some ways disrespectful. There's a long history of movies that use horrific acts committed by drug addicts as a scare tactic and while there is considerably more understanding and thought given to Emma and Jared in this story than in previous examples this still falls into that category. If the writer wants to show the harm caused by drugs they should show the harm in a realistic way, not an over-the-top slasher horror that is likely to backfire as much as its predecessors.
Brief
Jared Bradshaw goes to visit his sister Emma at a safe injection site where he witnesses her decline into madness when she begins a new drug combination called 'Wet'. The drug exacerbates her mental illness with voices and visions of her son until she goes on a killing spree before committing suicide.
What We Liked
The struggle between Emma and Jared to understand each other and the difficultly to make progress even with that understanding is compelling and heartbreaking.
Wet takes an unflinching look at the most horrible consequences that can result from a combination of drugs and mental illness. With edge of your seat tension building to a bloody climax that will leaves audiences something to think about long after they've left the theater. This is a film with a clear point of view that seeks to show the horrors that addiction can wreak even as it explores why a person would choose to shoot up.
Key points: Blood and gore. Rising tension. Family dynamics. Pressing societal issues. Unpredictable protagonist.
Synopsis
A woman has a public freakout at her kids outside her house in Virginia. She tearfully tells someone over the phone how much she loves them. The next morning she and the kids are dead inside her car in the river.
Jared, a smarmy would be documentary filmmaker just out of college goes to film the opening of a supervised injection site at an addiction center in California and interview one of the addicts, his sister Emma. Jared opines if they had these sites earlier their parents might still be alive. With the help of the center's warden he interviews Emma repeatedly.
In the night a camera captures the image of a six year old boy in Emma's bedroom. She saw her six year old son, which may have resulted from a cigarette give to her by another addict, Zan. The cigarettes have weed, PCP and embalming fluid. They call it 'Wet'.
Dark shadows terrorize Emma on successive nights. She wakes up screaming that she's been raped but Jared's camera has a time jump in the footage. Jared and the warden argue about what she should do. She declines a rape kit. The next night she stands over Jared with scissors and at the edge of the roof. When they interrogate her she says she was going to stab a snake but her son told her not to. They didn't know about her son, she doesn't know if he's alive of dead.
After Emma has another episode they learn she's on PCP, that she was raped and Zan filmed it. Zan kills a security guard and eats his face. Emma wants to keep taking the drugs to help 'find her son'. The Warden and Jared agree to keep the film going so she can help find the drugs supplier. Jared thinks he's waiting to watch her die, but when a friend tells him about a woman who drowned herself and her kids on Wet they form a new plan to inspire Emma by finding people who overcame the drug.
Jared does a deep dive into other people using Wet and what he finds disturbs him. The police send Emma to buy from some dealers who attempt to kidnap her. Jared intervenes and gets stabbed, Emma flees back to the addiction center. She takes a hit of Wet but her inner voice just convinces herself to kill herself, which she attempts to do by slitting her wrists.
Waking up strapped to a gurney Emma learns her son is alive and living with foster parents. Jared shows her a picture of him. Emma admits she gets high because it shows her a version of him safe from harm and she'll keep doing it even if it kills her.
Jared and a detective bring her son to the site in a last ditch attempt to save her. Emma, having been released, comes back and is refused entry. She listens to a new voice in her head and kills the security guard with a pair of scissors. She kills two more people before discovering her son in the warden's office and barricading herself in with him. Voices tell her to kill him to end his pain while Jared pleads with her to open the door. Instead she throws herself out the window to her death.
Jared recounts to the camera how he struggled with heroin himself after Emma's death, that her son is doing well with his adoptive parents and how he came to understand that she sought rest through drugs and ultimately suicide. He uses this